1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to horizontal hinged door assemblies such as roof scuttles and, in particular, to a safety railing which may easily be installed on new and existing roof scuttles by unskilled labor without compromising the integrity of the weather seal of the roof scuttle.
2. Description of Related Art
Horizontal hinged (covers) doors are commonly used for roof scuttles, automatic fire vents, ceiling access doors, basement doors and other access doors. The present invention will be directed for convenience to single door roof scuttles which are used to provide access to a roof but it will be appreciated to those skilled in the art that the invention is applicable to other horizontal hinged doors such as double leaf roof scuttles for which a safety railing around the door is desired.
Roof scuttles are ruggedly built for long, dependable service and generally comprise a rectangular frame extending above the roofline and which surrounds the opening to be covered. A door is hinged to the frame for motion of the door between an open and closed position The conventional roof scuttle has a vertical sheet metal inner wall with an outwardly extending 90° horizontal anchoring flange at the bottom of the wall, which flange is nailed or otherwise secured to the roof deck through holes provided in the flange. Rigid fiberboard insulation extends around the inner wall and forms the outer wall of the frame. A capflashing is connected to the top of the inner wall usually by welding and extends downward over the top portion of the outer wall. Roofing materials are then used to waterproof the outer wall of the frame typically by rolling the roofing along the roof surface and then up the vertical outer walls (curb) of the frame and securing the roofing material to the curb. When the roofing material is secured a weather resistant installation is complete.
Securing the roofing material to the roof scuttle frame requires experienced and skilled labor to properly waterproof the scuttle. A number of patents have issued in this area relating to forming a waterproof seal between a waterproof roofing material and the scuttle frame surrounding a roof opening. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,596, a roofing device is shown for sealing the roofing material to a roof scuttle having a curb wherein the roofing material is wrapped over an elongated resilient filler piece which is snuggly inserted into a filler channel between the wall and a top flange of the capflashing of the scuttle. A conventional roof scuttle of the prior art is shown schematically herein in FIG. 1 wherein the inner wall 19 of the roof scuttle is bent 90° to form a base flange 23 which may be adhesively sealed and nailed or screwed in a conventional manner to the roof through openings 23a. The roof surface and outer wall curb 18a of the roof scuttle are covered with a roofing material which is then secured in place against the outer wall 18a. Another similar sealing system for a conventional roof scuttle is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,300. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,008 a frame assembly is shown for surrounding an opening in a building surface and for securing a waterproof roofing material to the frame assembly. All the above patents are hereby incorporated by reference.
Use of a roof scuttle necessarily leaves an opening in the roof when the door of the roof scuttle is open as shown in FIG. 1.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is one object of the present invention to provide a roof scuttle for enclosing a roof opening which roof scuttle has a safety railing attached thereto which is easily installed by unskilled labor on any size new or existing roof scuttle without compromising the integrity of the weather seal of the roof scuttle.
It is another object of the present invention to provide methods for installing a safety railing on a new or existing roof scuttle without compromising the integrity of the weather seal, which methods are easily performed by unskilled labor.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.